would be nice to set priorities for users. i have one particular buddy account that i always want to be supported with the highest priority.
@geekz85 said:
would be nice to set priorities for users. i have one particular buddy account that i always want to be supported with the highest priority.
I feel guilty, as I love this feature, but immediately started thinking of all the features I now want with it. lol
@Eurisko69 said:
I feel guilty, as I love this feature, but immediately started thinking of all the features I now want with it. lol
Care to elaborate 
?
Because that’s the thing - I want a value of “0” available in the setting, you want something else.
Please, share. I’m curious 
.
@Monsters_Grin said:
Because that’s the thing - I want a value of “0” available in the setting, you want something else.
Please, share. I’m curious
Maybe I read your earlier question wrong. You want to be able to set 0 for the # of transcodes. So you basically want playback to only work with direct play and only when there is bandwidth available?
@MovieFan.Plex said:
So you basically want playback to only work with direct play and only when there is bandwidth available?
EXACTLY !
Aaand it would be nice to know why it couldn’t direct play. Like - the exact reason .
Yeah, I know. I’m annoying 
.
@Monsters_Grin said:
@anon18523487 said:
So you basically want playback to only work with direct play and only when there is bandwidth available?EXACTLY
Transcoding is one of Plex’s key features so I don’t know if something like that would be added. You can get the same effect yourself by just renaming/removing the Plex Transcoder file.
Aaand it would be nice to know why it couldn’t direct play. Like - the exact reason
Yeah, I know. I’m annoying
Knowing the exact reason is not always possible. Often, it’s just the client device saying, “nope, can’t play it”, so there is no way to know why.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
Transcoding is one of Plex’s key features so I don’t know if something like that would be added. You can get the same effect yourself by just renaming/removing the Plex Transcoder file.
Well, I shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not that hard to just give us a choice. It would probably take 5 minutes to add this value. We both know that . . . It should be there in the first place.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
Knowing the exact reason is not always possible. Often, it’s just the client device saying, “nope, can’t play it”, so there is no way to know why.
I was under the impression that it’s working by comparing the file spec to device profile. If the device says it can play to certain max settings, Plex should be able to inform which setting exeeds that limit. Not like “it won’t work and we won’t tell you why” - it doesn’t do any good . . .
@geekz85 said:
would be nice to set priorities for users. i have one particular buddy account that i always want to be supported with the highest priority.
Don’t know if you have seen the latest Plex blog…Unless I’m misinterpreting It seems to suggest that Plex are in no way done with this feature, It’s just a starting point.
https://www.plex.tv/blog/mcstreamy-brain-take-world-two-easy-steps/?utm_source=Plex&utm_medium=email&utm_content=streaming_brain_button&utm_campaign=October+Newsletter+2016+Plex+Pass
The exact quote being…
“If you made it this far, congratulations, and thanks for reading! To summarize, this new feature will make streaming remotely, to multiple users, with a range of available bandwidth and CPU, much more reliable. It’s the first step of many we have planned: McStreamy will get smarter over time, and gain new capabilities.”
Sounds promising.
@Monsters_Grin said:
@Eurisko69 said:
I feel guilty, as I love this feature, but immediately started thinking of all the features I now want with it. lolCare to elaborate
Because that’s the thing - I want a value of “0” available in the setting, you want something else.
Please, share. I’m curious
Now I want to be able to prioritize people. Like myself if I’m remote, I want to hog the bandwidth, heck with everyone else. Both prioritize bandwidth, and transcoding effort.
@Eurisko69 said:
Now I want to be able to prioritize people. Like myself if I’m remote, I want to hog the bandwidth, heck with everyone else. Both prioritize bandwidth, and transcoding effort.
Yeah. I would like to think that this would be useful for load balancing between servers in a group.
But, I’m a dreamer .
@Monsters_Grin said:
Well, I shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not that hard to just give us a choice. It would probably take 5 minutes to add this value. We both know that . . . It should be there in the first place.
You’re not the first to ask for this. Personally, I just want Plex to work whether it is direct played or transcoded, I don’t care too much.@anon18523487 said:
Knowing the exact reason is not always possible. Often, it’s just the client device saying, “nope, can’t play it”, so there is no way to know why.I was under the impression that it’s working by comparing the file spec to device profile. If the device says it can play to certain max settings, Plex should be able to inform which setting exeeds that limit. Not like “it won’t work and we won’t tell you why” - it doesn’t do any good . . .
Not quite. First the app will communicate with the device “here is a file, can you direct play it”, device responds yes or no. If no, then app asks “what format would you like” and the device responds. PMS then transcodes to this or if it doesn’t get a good response will use the built in profile. So PMS can tell you why it transcoded, but it may not exactly be why the file didn’t direct play in the first place. If you have any Android device, you can turn on the overlay on the player to tell you why it is transcoding.
I don’t know if you’ve ever looked in the logs, but when something is transcoded, you can see this logic in the log.
@Monsters_Grin said:
@MovieFan.Plex said:
Transcoding is one of Plex’s key features so I don’t know if something like that would be added. You can get the same effect yourself by just renaming/removing the Plex Transcoder file.Well, I shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not that hard to just give us a choice. It would probably take 5 minutes to add this value. We both know that . . . It should be there in the first place.
I foresee many support issues with this as other users can not figure out why they cannot watch some of their media after renaming the transcoder file. And, I also can foresee additional support issues as to why a user cannot watch their media when not at home, forgetting that they set the value to 0.
@Monsters_Grin said:
@Eurisko69 said:
I feel guilty, as I love this feature, but immediately started thinking of all the features I now want with it. lol
Care to elaborate
I haven’t tested this yet so this may actually work already with the current version of the Streaming Brain.
The “Deep Analysis” calculates (among other things) the maximum peak Bitrates. In combination with the knowledge of the playback device’s buffer it would be great to get an automatic direct play or a transcode to a suitable (peak) Bitrate based on the playback device’s internet connection speed.
If this doesn’t work yet I realize that a speedtest before each playback would cause a delay which might not be “acceptable”. Two other solutions I can think of right now:
Either let us define the internet connection of a user under Settings/Users (or even better let us additionally (optionally) define a specific value under Settings/Devices to override the generic User setting) which would be convenient for the non-techie users and/or somehow build a Speedtest button into Plex which adjusts the Playback settings for the device accordingly (which would need adjustments for every App so doesn’t seem feasible).
@MovieFan.Plex said:
You’re not the first to ask for this. Personally, I just want Plex to work whether it is direct played or transcoded, I don’t care too much.
I understand your approach. But not everyone has Plex on a server that is able to transcode multiple streams. Some just want to avoid transcoding like the devil avoids holy water . This should be the users choice. Plex Inc shouldn’t impose those kind of restrictions. Like I said many times before - looks like Plex Inc treats transcoding like a religion. That’s not right . . .
@MovieFan.Plex said:
Not quite. First the app will communicate with the device “here is a file, can you direct play it”, device responds yes or no. If no, then app asks “what format would you like” and the device responds. PMS then transcodes to this or if it doesn’t get a good response will use the built in profile. So PMS can tell you why it transcoded, but it may not exactly be why the file didn’t direct play in the first place. If you have any Android device, you can turn on the overlay on the player to tell you why it is transcoding.
The Android app just shows which stream is being transcoded (video or audio). It won’t tell me if it’s because of the AVC level or something like that. Just shows the codec name. If the device tells exactly what is accepted, it should be reported to the server admin.
@MovieFan.Plex said:
I don’t know if you’ve ever looked in the logs, but when something is transcoded, you can see this logic in the log.
Finding this in logs can take ages. And it will get even more confusing when Streaming Brain comes into play.
For example - I just tried playing one of the episodes remotely via Chrome. A video, previously direct played, now transcodes without a clear reason.
The only thing I found in the logs is
- “reducing bitrate to 7619kbps” - which is BS - the video in question has 5559 kbps of overall bitrate.
- Claims that direct play and direct stream is disabled which is not. I’ve selected “original” on all options.
That same video was playing with just transcoded audio (because the audio is aac) just and hour ago. Now the video is transcoding too. Please don’t tell me I should just accept “the logic”
.
EDIT: The remote stream quality is set as “Original (No limit)”.
@sGarver said:
I foresee many support issues with this as other users can not figure out why they cannot watch some of their media after renaming the transcoder file. And, I also can foresee additional support issues as to why a user cannot watch their media when not at home, forgetting that they set the value to 0.
Oh, okay. One person can’t handle what they’re doing and suddenly everyone else can’t have something? Come on! It’s not drugs . . .
@Wiidesire said:
I haven’t tested this yet so this may actually work already with the current version of the Streaming Brain.
The “Deep Analysis” calculates (among other things) the maximum peak Bitrates. In combination with the knowledge of the playback device’s buffer it would be great to get an automatic direct play or a transcode to a suitable (peak) Bitrate based on the playback device’s internet connection speed.
If this doesn’t work yet I realize that a speedtest before each playback would cause a delay which might not be “acceptable”. Two other solutions I can think of right now:
Either let us define the internet connection of a user under Settings/Users (or even better let us additionally (optionally) define a specific value under Settings/Devices to override the generic User setting) which would be convenient for the non-techie users and/or somehow build a Speedtest button into Plex which adjusts the Playback settings for the device accordingly (which would need adjustments for every App so doesn’t seem feasible).
Nice idea. I like it. But the user part would need to be dynamic. We would have to assume that users move and connection quality changes. But I can live with a delay before the app starts playing.
I understand that Plex is supposed to “just take care of that” but we should be given a choice. Instead, we’re being treated like sheep who can’t think for themselves and we should just buy expensive hardware and let everything work itself out by wasting resources. I refuse to accept that . . .
@Monsters_Grin said:
@Wiidesire said:
let us define the internet connection of a user under Settings/Users (or even better let us additionally (optionally) define a specific value under Settings/Devices to override the generic User setting) which would be convenient for the non-techie users
Nice idea. I like it. But the user part would need to be dynamic. We would have to assume that users move and connection quality changes.
That’s why I suggested setting a global connection speed for the user under Settings/Users and then let us optionally override this value by setting a value under Settings/Devices. So for example the global setting of 10 Mbit would apply to a TV or Laptop of the user but his/her Smartphone uses the lower value (2 Mbit) defined under Settings/Devices.
A completely “dynamic” solution would of course be better but I imagine it would be much more difficult to implement without causing drawbacks (e.g. delay after starting the stream or internet connection used before playback after an episode is selected).
@Monsters_Grin said:
I understand your approach. But not everyone has Plex on a server that is able to transcode multiple streams. Some just want to avoid transcoding like the devil avoids holy water
Can I just say for the most of the world… it is right.
With regards to the comment about not everyone having a powerful enough server… It’s doable at a price.
You seem to suggest that bandwidth Isn’t an issue? For you maybe… but not in the real world. Yes I’m UK based and on Fibre TTP/H. £70 a month gives me 20 M/Bps… Most providers here offer 2 M/Bps.
I’m not exactly in a third world country… but what I have is available to maybe 10% of the UK.
A heavy CPU is an option for everyone in the world… A fast connection isn’t… Just saying!
@Wiidesire said:
That’s why I suggested setting a global connection speed for the user under Settings/Users and then let us optionally override this value by setting a value under Settings/Devices. So for example the global setting of 10 Mbit would apply to a TV or Laptop of the user but his/her Smartphone uses the lower value (2 Mbit) defined under Settings/Devices.
It would be nice to have some kind of groups for that too and being able to apply it like “group policy” .
Just like someone else said - let’s say you favor some users over the others .
@Wiidesire said:
A completely “dynamic” solution would of course be better but I imagine it would be much more difficult to implement without causing drawbacks (e.g. delay after starting the stream or internet connection used before playback after an episode is selected).
I don’t think that I would be that much of a delay. Besides, adjusting bitrate during the playback could be an option too.
@davehobson said:
Can I just say for the most of the world… it is right.
With regards to the comment about not everyone having a powerful enough server… It’s doable at a price.
You seem to suggest that bandwidth Isn’t an issue? For you maybe… but not in the real world. Yes I’m UK based and on Fibre TTP/H. £70 a month gives me 20 M/Bps… Most providers here offer 2 M/Bps.
I’m not exactly in a third world country… but what I have is available to maybe 10% of the UK.
A heavy CPU is an option for everyone in the world… A fast connection isn’t… Just saying!
I have a 10Mbps upload. Checkmate .
@Monsters_Grin said:
I have a 10Mbps upload. Checkmate
WTF… I didn’t know we were playing Chess. So you have a library full of Xvid/avi/cams and 480p .mp4?
@davehobson said:
WTF… I didn’t know we were playing Chess. So you have a library full of Xvid/avi/cams and 480p .mp4?
That’s just an expression . Didn’t mean to get on your nerves. Sorry .
As for my library - my media ranges from 1,5 to 40Mbps, depending on the content. Most of it is not being streamed remotely, obviously. At least not until I get the 1Gbps symmetrical pipe installed. But that’s gonna take a looong time . . .
@Monsters_Grin said:
Well, I shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not that hard to just give us a choice. It would probably take 5 minutes to add this value. We both know that . . . It should be there in the first place.
I always find it amusing when I see time estimates from someone without intimate knowledge of the design.
As per rationale: This slot value also controls index file generation, media optimizer, and sync transcodes. If this were set to 0, how many users do you suppose would then complain than those three no longer work?
@Monsters_Grin said:
Finding this in logs can take ages. And it will get even more confusing when Streaming Brain comes into play.
For example - I just tried playing one of the episodes remotely via Chrome. A video, previously direct played, now transcodes without a clear reason.
The only thing I found in the logs is
- “reducing bitrate to 7619kbps” - which is BS - the video in question has 5559 kbps of overall bitrate.
- Claims that direct play and direct stream is disabled which is not. I’ve selected “original” on all options.
That same video was playing with just transcoded audio (because the audio is aac) just and hour ago. Now the video is transcoding too. Please don’t tell me I should just accept “the logic”
When you say that it is 5559kbps of overall bitrate, are you talking about the peak bitrate or the average? The above is a single line which is several layers deep in the decision process. Without the other lines and the metadata XML I can only guess, but if the decision process rejected direct play or direct stream (likely either at client request or due to bandwidth concerns), it’ll disable these two and run the decision process again. I imagine you are seeing subsequent runs of this process.
